Teddy Bear Toss!

We all (Me, Traci, Andrew, Poppop and Nan) went to the Calgary Hitmen game this afternoon as it was the annual Teddy Bear Toss. This event has been happening for a number of years now. What happens is, everyone brings a stuffed animal to the game and when the Hitmen score their first goal, you chuck your bear out on the ice. Thing is, there are 18,000 people in the stands and it just RAINS stuffed animals for a few minutes.

If you are near the bottom of the arena, be prepared to be whacked by a few stuffies that are tossed from the cheap seats. I took a lump from a huge bear, but other than that we didn’t have any instances or injuries.

Andrew was actually ticked off that these flying bears interrupted the hockey game, he loves watching hockey. I gave him a little bear to throw but he didn't want to and he kept it. We tossed a number of other ones already so I figure he should have it. (ed note: he would have freaked if I tossed it) All the bears go to local charities to be given out in hospitals and care homes to sick and needy kids.

We had to sit a few rows apart from each other as this game is a complete sellout and tickets are hard to get where Poppop and Nan sit.

The nightmare of the organizing committee just about happened at this game. The Goal that started the downpour of stuffies was actually waved off as the Ref didn’t see the puck cross the line. A few of the Calgary players celebrated like it was a goal and the floodgates were busted and there was no stopping the throwers at that point. They did video review and finally decided it was a goal, so good for us for throwing. It was pretty anticlimactic tho as there was no real goal celebration like there should have been.

For those readers not in Calgary, the Calgary Hitmen are a Major Junior hockey team that play in the Western Hockey League. These kids are 16 to 20 years old and are the best in the world at their age group. A number of these kids are already drafted and some are even signed to NHL teams. As for the moniker “Hitmen”. It’s not a mob thing. Brett the Hitman Hart of WWF (now WWE) fame started this team. They even used to have pink trimmed uniforms just like Brett did. He is still active in our community and has been a part of the teams 15th anniversary celebration this year even though he doesn’t own the team anymore.

On other news, Poppop and I were sitting in Tims the other night during a break from plowing and this guy walks in asking if anyone knows where a Petro-pass truck stop is. I told him we knew and then he just went into his story. He was delivering a Semi Truck load of Electronics from Toronto Calgary when his truck burned to the ground just outside of Calgary earlier in the day. He lost all his ID, Debit and Credit cards and didn’t have cent to his name. After quite a number of ‘interview’ questions, I gave him a ride to where he needed to go. What a sucky day for him. “what were you carrying?” I asked him on the ride over. “1.8 million dollars in electronic equipment” he replied. yikes. All the guy had left were his licence plates…

Pic of the day… Another favorite of mine from the past. This was about 15 seconds of exposure around a nice campfire at Elkwater, in Cypress Hill Provincial Park, in July of 08. This area of the world is in a designated ‘World Dark Sky Preserve’ and the star gazing is incredible.